The new report comes at a time of snowballing global anxiety over the ethics of weaponizing artificial intelligence and robots in the battlefield, signified by the recent submission of an open letter to the United Nations calling for such technologies to be banned.

The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) outlines in a new report that future warfare will likely be fought between armies of "enhanced humans" "and robots," according to the UK's Independent Newspaper.

The paper, reportedly titled 'The Future Starts Today,' which is yet to be released to the public, allegedly says that as the world becomes more volatile, and the threat posed by non-state terrorism continues to increase apace alongside climate change, "new areas of conflict" will also start to emerge, including the space and cyberspace realms.

Commenting to the media on the report, UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said that, "This report makes clear that we are living in a world that is becoming rapidly more dangerous, with intensifying challenges from state aggressors who flout the rules, terrorists who want to harm our way of life and the technological race with our adversaries."

​"Identifying these threats means we can continue to build an armed forces that can stay ahead of them," he added.

The paper is part of the MoD's upcoming sixth edition of the ‘Global Strategic Trends' report, developed by the MoD's think tank, ‘the Development Concepts and Doctrine Centre,' and was said to be developed with allied countries, including Sweden, France, Germany, Australia and others.

Rather portentously, it tells of a world in which autonomous systems may claim a monopoly on the conduct of warfare, warning that, "whilst it is envisaged that humans will continue to be central to the decision-making process, conflicts fought increasingly by robots or autonomous systems could change the very nature of warfare, as there will be less emphasis on emotions, passion and chance."

🌊 From the Napoleonic wars to the Falklands Conflict, Devonport has played a vital role in the defence of the UK and will now home eight 6,900-tonne frigates, providing protection for the UK's nuclear deterrent and the QEC aircraft carrier. Read more: https://t.co/NQCeNWzOhipic.twitter.com/wnoG0gizcI

​As if the idea of robot armies isn't startling enough, the paper allegedly goes on to describe an almost dystopian scenario, in which the possibility of "human enhancement" by "gene editing, physical and cognitive prosthesis and pharmaceutical enhancement" becomes a reality.

The report's authors go on to prophesize that the enhancement of such military capabilities will create a "profound expansion of the boundaries of human performance." Suggesting that the MoD is open to dabbling in such technologies, the report allegedly adds, "the application of these technologies and the integration of human and machine on the battlefield present opportunities to enhance military capability."

However, reports say that while the MoD is aware of the battlefield advantage such developments could confer upon the UK's forces, specific "moral, ethical and legal thresholds" would need to be worked out.

One of the reports other main grim forecasts concerns the use of nuclear weapons, saying that their deployment is likely to become more commonplace: "the number of nuclear-armed states could rise and increasing investment in tactical nuclear weapons and electromagnetic pulse weapons will increase the risk that nuclear weapons are used."

Hello,
!

We are committed to protecting your personal information and we have updated our Privacy Policy to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new EU regulation that went into effect on May 25, 2018.

Please review our Privacy Policy. It contains details about the types of data we collect, how we use it, and your data protection rights.

Since you already shared your personal data with us when you created your personal account, to continue using it, please check the box below:

I agree to the processing of my personal data for the purpose of creating a personal account on this site, in compliance with the Privacy Policy.

If you do not want us to continue processing your data, please click here to delete your account.

promotes the use of narcotic / psychotropic substances, provides information on their production and use;

contains links to viruses and malicious software;

is part of an organized action involving large volumes of comments with identical or similar content ("flash mob");

“floods” the discussion thread with a large number of incoherent or irrelevant messages;

violates etiquette, exhibiting any form of aggressive, humiliating or abusive behavior ("trolling");

doesn’t follow standard rules of the English language, for example, is typed fully or mostly in capital letters or isn’t broken down into sentences.

The administration has the right to block a user’s access to the page or delete a user’s account without notice if the user is in violation of these rules or if behavior indicating said violation is detected.